Qld: Maximum security for serial escapist Abbott

AAP General News (Australia)
12-22-2000
Qld: Maximum security for serial escapist Abbott

BRISBANE, Dec 22 AAP - Serial prison escapee Brendon Abbott would remain in a maximum
security unit until he could show he had lost the urge to escape, Queensland Corrective
Services Minister Tom Barton said today.

The Supreme Court today rejected an application by Abbott to have his imprisonment
conditions relaxed, a move Mr Barton said vindicated the state's tough new prison laws.

Mr Barton said no sympathy should be spared for Abbott, who was in jail because he
committed a series of violent armed robberies and masterminded the "most ferocious" prison
escape in Australian history.

"His history demonstrates that if we relax the conditions and he's able to win the
confidence of other people, in the past he's been very adept at organising escapes," Mr
Barton told a news conference.

Mr Barton said Abbott was not in solitary confinement, but in an air-conditioned prison
cell with a television and a radio.

He was able to speak to prison officers and was allowed out of his cell for short periods
of time, Mr Barton said.

"It's far from the conditions of the old black hole at Boggo Road,"

Mr Barton said Abbott, once dubbed the Post Card Bandit, would be allowed to join other
prisoners in a mainstream jail if and when he proved he was rehabilitated.

"Brendon Abbott will get a break when he can demonstrate very clearly that he's deserving
of that break," he said.

AAP bja/jhm/mjm/bwln

KEYWORD: ABBOTT BARTON

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